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After Rishabh Pant’s car crash, expert suggests compiling data on road accidents caused by drivers dozing off
The sleep deprivation of drivers on account of driving during late hours leads to road accidents and the government should identify this cause, says expert
The road accident involving star India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant near Roorkee early Friday should serve as a wake-up call for stakeholders, and the data on accidents caused by sleep deprivation of drivers should be identified separately, an expert suggested.
Rishabh Pant’s plan to surprise his mother ahead of the New Year turned into a horrific accident after his car collided with a road divider on the Delhi-Dehradun highway in the early hours on Friday. The star India wicket-keeper batter was lucky to escape serious injuries, jumping off his Mercedes in the nick of time as the car went up in flames after hitting the divider.
The 25-year-old dozed off and lost control of his Mercedes early morning on Friday en route to his home in Roorkee, he told the police. He was alone in the car.
“The accident on the Delhi-Dehradun highway near Roorkee involving Rishabh Pant in the early hours of Friday is unfortunate. His car crashed as he lost control of the vehicle when he “dozed off”. This accident is a wake-up call for all stakeholders to take proactive initiatives to curb the unabated number of accidents on the National Highways (NHs) and State Highways (SHs),” said KC Jain, road safety activist and advocate.
“In 2021, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) in its report, did not compile the number of accidents and fatalities on account of the drivers dozing off. In fact, the sleep starvation of drivers on account of driving during late hours leads to road accidents. The government should have identified this cause in the report,” Jain said.
“In fact, the ministry should also have thought of interventions through executive and legislative tools to check driving at late hours. Many countries have put restrictions on the total hours of driving at a stretch,” said Jain who held over-speeding as another major reason for such accidents.
“Over-speeding has to be curbed by technological initiatives, as required by the recently added statutory prescription of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicle Act, necessitating electronic monitoring of NHs, SHs and major corridors,” said KC Jain, who is secretary for the Agra Development Foundation and has approached the high court and the Supreme Court, highlighting unabated road accidents.
“The said provision came into force in 2021 and the rules thereunder have also been framed. I have moved a petition before the apex court for ensuring its compliance. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on coming January 6, 2023.” Jain said.
“The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has issued its annual report on 12.12.2022, ‘Road Accidents in India 2021’. This report reveals that the major cause of the road accidents is over-speeding. During year 2021, there were 2,95,522 accidents causing 1,07,236 fatalities and 2,80,285 were injured due to over-speeding. Such fatalities were 69.6% of the total,” Jain said.
In 2021, there were 1,28,825 accidents on national highways, killing 56,007 people and injuring 1,17,765. There were 96,382 accidents on state highways, killing 37,963 people and injuring 92,583 people, the activist added.
“As per the report, the NHs’ share is only 2.1% of the total road network of the country and the share of the SHs is 2.8%. The percentage of the other roads is 95. But, the percentage share of accidents on the NHs as against the total number of accidents in the country is 31.2. The percentage share of the SHs is 23.4%. Likewise, the percentage share of the deaths on NHs is 36.4%, while the percentage share of deaths on SHs is 24.1%,” Jain said.
“Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, in his message in the 2021 report, has mentioned, “During the year 2021, a total number of 4,12,432 road accidents have been reported in the country, claiming 1,53,972 lives and causing injuries to 3,84,448 persons. Unfortunately, the worst affected age group in road accidents is 18-45 years, which accounts for about 67% of total accidental deaths.”
It further stated, “The ministry is also working to collect accident data through Integrated Road Accidents (iRAD)/e-Detailed Accidents Report (e-DAR) projects to provide a real-time causative analysis of road accidents in line with the international practices.”
Union minister of state for road transport and highways General (Dr) Vijay Kumar Singh, mentioned in the report: “The issue of road safety becomes even more important for India, having one of the largest road networks in the world. The unprecedented rate of motorisation and growing urbanisation fuelled by high rate of economic growth have compounded the problem. Every year, approximately 1.5 lakh people die on India roads, which translate, on an average, into 1130 accidents and 422 deaths every day or 47 accidents and 18 deaths every hour.”
“This reflects the urgent need for effective measures to curb accidents,” KC Jain said.
